Chocolate Mousse Cake

After baking cookies, I finally decided to try baking a cake. Being a first timer, I chose the easiest. It was a simple chocolate mousse cake recipe adapted from Food magazine. I asked my dear sister, Tin, to help me on this since she has more experience in baking. Without her help, this would surely be a disaster. Actually, while we're doing this recipe I made a "stupid mistake". On the mousse part, I prepared 1 1/2 cup of all purpose cream when the recipe calls for only 1/2 cup of the cream. Arrgh. So there were some of the ingredients that went into waste. Anyway, lesson learned. Next time, I will carefully read the ingredients and steps. Sorry for the ugly piping (cake decoration) I still don't know how to use the piping bag. I still need a lot of practice.

Chocolate Mousse Cake

For the cake:
1/2 cup butter
1 cup semi-sweet choco chips
2 tbsp Dutch processed cocoa
3 eggs, separated
1 tbsp all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar

For the mousse:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose cream, divided, 1 cup to be chilled solid
1 1/4 cups semi-sweet choco chips
3 eggs, separated
1 tbsp unflavored gelatin
3 tbsps cold water
1/3 cup sugar

For the topping: (optional)
1 tbsp cocoa powder
3 tbsps powdered sugar, divided
1/2 cup all-purpose cream, chilled

Make the cake:

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line a 9-inch round springform pan with non-stick baking paper.
2. In a small saucepan, melt butter, choco chips and cocoa. Stir until smooth. Transfer to a medium bowl and cool.
3. Add egg yolks and flour to cooled mixture. Stir with a wire whisk until smooth.
4. Place egg whites in a grease-free mixing bowl. Beat with electric mixer on medium high speed until foamy. Gradually add sugar. Increase speed to high and continue beating until stiff but not dry.
5. With a wire whisk, gently fold in chocolate-egg mixture into whites. Pour into springform pan, tapping pan gently on the table to remove any air pockets.
6. Bake for 20-22 minutes. Remove from oven and cool on wire rack. Cake will shrink as it cools. Put the cake back into the pan.

Make the mousse:

1. In a small saucepan, over low heat, heat the 1/2 cup all-purpose cream that's NOT chilled. Add choco chips and stir until smooth.
2. Stir a little of the chocolate mixture into egg yolks to prevent the yolks from curdling. Pour tempered yolks back to chocolate mixture.
3. In a bowl, combine gelatin and cold water. Add to chocolate yolk mixture and heat to dissolve gelatin. Remove from heat and transfer to a medium bowl to cool until just warm.
4. Place egg whites in a grease-free mixing bowl. Beat with electric mixer at medium high speed until foamy. Gradually add sugar and continue beating until stiff but not dry. Gently fold in chocolate-yolk mixture until uniformly blended. Set aside.
5. Place the 1 cup chilled cream in a medium bowl. With a wire whisk, mix cream until smooth, but do not whip. Add a little egg white mixture to lighten the cream.
6. Add the rest of the egg white mixture and fold until uniformly blended. Pour mixture over cake, tapping pan on the table to remove air pockets.
7. Smoothen top with a knife or angled metal spatula. Chill overnight in refrigerator.

To put topping: (if using)

1. After the cake has chilled overnight, run a wet metal spatula around sides of mousse. Release sides of springform pan.
2. Using a fine sifter, sift 1 tbsp cocoa over cake. Sift about 1/2 to 1 tbsp of the powdered sugar over cake but not entirely covering the cocoa powder.
3. Whip chilled cream with remaining powdered sugar and pipe cream around the edges of mousse cake. Transfer cake to a platter before serving.

Today would have been

...my father's 56th birthday. He's been gone for 2 years now but his birthday is something I always remember and I still miss him very much. He passed away when Jared was only 2 weeks old and my heart still aches when I remember that moment. Although he lived a short 54 years, I believe he lived them well and I am very proud of him.

Happy birthday, Daddy. I really thank God for giving me a father like you. I'm so lucky to grow up with someone who loved me as much as you did. Even though you're not here anymore, I know you're always there watching us over. I always find myself wanting to share my memories of you with everyone. I guess it's my way of keeping you alive. Thank you for the 26 years that I have spent with you and for giving me such a great life. I love you daddy..

Lunch with the newlyweds

Went to Greenhills Shopping center yesterday to meet some of our relatives in Nueva Ecija and of course the newlyweds, Ate Beth and Kuya Jake. We had a hard time thinking of a place to eat while we're on our way. My mom said that Ate Beth’s husband requested to dine in a resto that serves steaks. So when we arrived at the mall, we headed straight to the Promenade where a lot of restaurants are located. The first resto that we saw which serves steak was Burgoo and then we decided right away because it’s so hard to walk some more when you are carrying a toddler in your arms. Jared was sleeping at that time and we forgot to bring his stroller so I had to carry him on the way to the resto. While we’re in the middle of our lunch, Jared woke up and immediately showed us a big smile. It's like he said hello to everyone in the table. Thanks to the crayons and paper in the table, I had the pleasure to eat freely because Jared got so busy using them.

Valentines and a Birthday

Feb 14 is the day when people celebrate Hearts day or Valentine’s day. And Valentine's day happened to be my MIL's birthday so we are celebrating 2 occasions in a day. She just turned 57. MIL and umpe and the rest of the gang (the cooking divas) prepared lots of dishes. They were so busy cooking all day while H and I were busy running after Jared. Jared was so active as ever that afternoon because he’s with Borris, a 6-yr-old kid who’s the cousin of Ryan which makes him Jared’s uncle (cool huh!). The candle blowing ceremony became a real hit. Jared was really excited to blow the candle which was obviously not his birthday candle but he insisted so what can we do. Then it’s mama’s turn to blow the candle again but Jared joined her so MIL didn’t have a solo pic for that ceremony. After their turn, our neighbor Sid, also a toddler, got envious and wanted to blow the candle too. I didn’t know that candle blowing would be such a hit for kids. Too bad, my mom was not able to come because of her flu. Anyways, Happy Birthday mama! :)

left: Jared with Borris, right: Jared with Sid

Jenny bakes

Yes, you read it right. I officially started baking and I'm liking it! I just baked my very first oatmeal cookies last Friday. I got the recipe from http://desarapen.blogspot.com/. I’ve been browsing this blog for quite a while and it’s just now that I had the courage to try one of the recipes. I chose the one which I think is the easiest and whose ingredients are easy to find. The original recipe has nuts and apricots but I eliminated it here in my recipe since I’m not fond of those. Anyway, it still turned out good according to the people who tasted it. I'm not sure if they really meant it or they just felt obliged. Either way, I am still posting the recipe. :)

Ingredients:
250 gm [1 cup] unsalted butter - softened at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour - sifted
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
1/2 tsp salt
2 1/2 cups porridge oats (I used organic rolled oats so Jared can also enjoy it)
1 cup coarsely chopped white or milk chocolates (or dark chocs for me)

Procedure:
1. Preheat oven to 350F/180C/gas mark 4.
2. In a bowl combine 1 1/2 cup flour, salt and bicarbonate of soda until well mixed. Set aside.
3. Beat together in a big bowl the butter, sugar, brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla at medium speed until well combined. (around 2-3 mins)
4. Add in the flour mixture to the beaten butter mixture with a wooden spoon.
5. Stir in oats.
6. Add in the chopped chocolates. Mix well.
7. Shape dough into 1 1/2-inch balls and flatten slightly. Place them about 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.
8. Bake for 11 - 13 minutes or until slightly moist in the centre and browned at the edges.
9. Remove from oven and let cool for a couple of minutes before carefully removing from the baking sheets onto a cooling rack. Cool completely.

Note: If the dough is too soft, the baked result tends to be too spread out or flat. You can put the dough in the fridge for about 30 minutes before shaping them into balls. Or you can shape them into balls first then put in the fridge for the same amount of time or you can do both (chill before and after shaping into balls).

21 months

Jared turned 21 months on Feb. 12. The cake is not his celebration cake, he loves to blow a birthday candle so we let him and I took the chance to snap a photo for this post. He still doesn't know how to really blow, but he was able to blew off the candle when he suddenly sneezed :)
Here are some updates..

...He starts to use more than 1 word in his 'conversation'. His conversation skill is amazing. He mimics us like a parrot and catches on real fast.

...His naptime is now okay. Sleeps at 1 and wakes up at 3 or 4 in the afternoon.

...He's trying to jump. Will bend his knees and push himself up but his legs don’t leave the ground.

...He can recognize all the letters of the alphabet and the numbers 0-10.

...He's still as active as ever, he won't sit still for even a few seconds.

...He's shown more interest in watching videos specially the Baby Einstein. His favorite was the World Animals. One part of me is unhappy because there's a tendency that it might lead to TV addiction, and yet another part of me is kind of glad because he learns from it and gives us time to relax a bit while he watches TV.

...He loves the "point and say", - point to the objects in picture books and name them. He can name almost all the things in his picture books.

Happy 21 months cutie!

Dinner at Secret Recipe

I had dinner with my girlfriends from college last Wednesday. We met up at Shangrila Mall in EDSA. May (or Maylene) was the first to arrive there since she works just around the area and I was the second to arrive. While we're waiting for the two late comers, we strolled around the mall and started looking for a place where we can have our dinner. After some walk around the restos, we decided to try the Secret Recipe. It was everyone's first time to eat there. The food I ordered was pretty okay. We had delicious desserts after, marble cheesecake and chocolate banana cake which were both good. I wasn't able to take pictures because everyone wanted to eat the cakes as soon as it got on our table. :)

the pretty late comers

the prettier early birds :)

2 Weddings

I attended 2 weddings for 2 consecutive days. It was my cousin, Ate Beth and his husband Jake’s wedding last Friday which was held in Gapan, Nueva Ecija. I went there with my mom only since my 2 sisters have work and class, H has work and my dear son was sick and it’s better if he stays home. It was a nice and simple civil wedding. I was not able to witness the civil ceremony so I only have pictures from the reception which was held at Luz Restaurant.

Saturday was Carmie & Jeff’s wedding which was held at Marilao, Bulacan. Thanks to H who accompanied me in the wedding which then turned into our ‘date’ since we had the whole table for us only. It’s because my friends who were supposed to be with us on that table were not able to come. Anyway, the wedding was really beautiful and really entertaining. Entertaining, because the couple prepared a very nice song and dance number during their grand entrance at the reception. It’s something new to me since it was my first time to attend such wedding with the couple performing. It was really refreshing. Btw, they sang “Way back into love”. Here are some photos.

the newly-weds with the winners of the gater game

with my date

with the gorgeous bride